Articles
Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.
Damien Chazelle's Netflix Show "The Eddy"
I picked up the gauntlet and watched the eight episodes of the Netflix show The Eddy because it was promoted as being directed by Damien Chazelle, who wrote and directed the films Whiplash and La La Land. Chazelle is something of a bête noire for jazz people, who've been highly critical of his approach to jazz. I've always sensed in his films an oddly ambivalence relationship to jazz, even a whiff of pathology and I needed to investigate further.
read moreSylwester Ostrowski: Building Cultural Connections Globally with Jazz
Sylwester Ostrowski is an accomplished tenor saxophonist, composer, producer, and bandleader of the Jazz Brigade. He is experiencing major success in his music career, built around collaboration with other artists, and partnering with jazz institutions through his organization Szczecin Jazz. Ostrowski's global connections span four continents from Europe, North America, Africa, to Asia. Ostrowski is a leader in Poland using jazz to build cross-cultural connections. His work has earned the city of Szczecin his hometown the label “The ...
read moreMary Halvorson, Arthur Briggs, Theo Hill and More
This week we open with innovative guitarist Mary Halvorson. She brings great insights on her career and this new COVID-19 jazz world. We also listen and interview New York City pianist Theo Hill, who is now in Costa Rica during the global pandemic. Finally, we hear from Roberto Magris in Italy during the quarantine. Playlist Mary Halvorson “My Mind I Find in Time" Code Girl (Firehouse 12 Records) 00:00 Host talks 6:58 New Mayfair Orchestra “Time on my ...
read moreJacob Young: On ECM, founding a label and finding the "drama" in the music
There's a lot to be said about musical excellence in versatility when it comes to guitarist Jacob Young. The Norwegian fret-acrobat came to international prominence in the early 2000s, when ECM's Manfred Eicher detected his remarkable chops and subsequently recorded and released Young's debut Evening Falls (2004) for the prestigious German label. Two more sessions followed with 2006's Sideways and Forever Young in 2014—all of which met with great critical acclaim. But even a couple of years before, upon returning ...
read moreGeoff Mason: GMQ
Geoff Mason, one of the UK's leading jazz trombonists, mans the front line by himself on the slyly named GMQ, an eloquent quartet session from which Mason's longtime colleague, the outstanding saxophonist Simon Spillett, is regrettably missing. As nothing can be done to set that right, best to focus on the music at hand, which binds works by jazz masters John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock and Thelonious Monk to a pair of lesser-known originals ("Beyond All Limits," “L's Bop").
read moreBrian Landrus: For Now
Low-register reed specialist and multi-instrumentalist and composer Brian Landrus confronted a difficult period in his life and used adversity to inspire a passionate declaration in song on his 2020 release For Now (BlueLand Records). He took advice from the late valve-trombonist, composer and educator Bob Brookmeyer, “book a recording session before you have the music composed--then you have a goal." Alternating between the baritone saxophone and the bass clarinet, Landrus creates wonderful lower-range tones and compositions with instruments ...
read moreThreadbare: Silver Dollar
Wobbling like a drunk private eye in a thirties who dunnit, “And When the Situation Arises," the opening salutation of the unflinching Threadbare, rapidly transforms into a free jazz car chase where sodden hero and combatant bounce off light pole and guard rail, skidding towards cliffs with no regard for life, limb or the listener's expectations. It's a brazen launch to an album bristling with an increasingly anxious assurance. Alloying heavy metal with Ornette Coleman's inspired predetermination to ...
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